It is often necessary, both for the reason of safety and for testing purposes, to recover a projectile in an intact form. Various methods and devices have been developed to accomplish this result. Most are rather complex, costly, and difficult to utilize. Additionally, some soft recovery techniques are suitable for laboratory use only.
One method of soft recovery for projectiles involves directing the projectile down a closed tubular member while developing high gaseous pressure in front of the moving projectile. The pressure decelerates the projectile whereby it may be recovered in an intact form. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,678,745; 3,940,981 and 4,002,064 are examples of such a soft recovery technique. While such a method is effective, most prior art methods of this type have required sophisticated and expensive equipment, and are generally not well suited to the recovery of standard projectiles fired from ordinary weapons.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 157,145, filed June 6, 1980 by Frank L. Tevelow, discloses an improvement over these prior art methods. The technique of that disclosure involves firing a standard shell into an object in which the shell becomes embedded. The object and shell are decelerated as they travel through a tube in which high gaseous pressure is developed. Alternatively, frictional forces at the interface of the moving object and the tube wall will decelerate the shell or projectile. This technique obviates the need for relatively expensive and sophisticated apparatus, and is also suited for use with standard shells or projectiles. However, it suffers from the drawback that it is suited to the recovery of only those projectiles having a rifling band or other annular protrusion associated therewith. Furthermore, the element in which the projectile becomes embedded must be particularly dimensioned to properly mate with the specific projectile being tested.
Another soft recovery technique known in the art involves firing a projectile along a set of rails which are partially submerged in water. A specially configured nose attached to the projectile scoops up the water, thereby providing deceleration forces. This method is also only suited for laboratory use due to the fact that a controlled environment and specially adapted equipment must be provided in order to decelerate the projectile. Additionally, if the projectile being tested has a rifling band attached thereto, means must be provided for stripping this band from the projectile so that the projectile may be properly accommodated by the rails.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,286 discloses a projectile recovery device which is suitable for field use. The device of the patent comprises a ring-like attachment to be fitted to the end of a gun barrel. The attachment is so configured as to catch the rifling band of the projectile thereby becoming attached to the projectile in its flight. A cable and balloon or other drag inducing object are secured to the ring-like fitting to provide deceleration forces for the projectile. Use of this device is very cumbersome as it is necessary to attached a very long drag line and balloon to the projectile recovery device. The device also suffers from the drawback that any particular fitting attached to the end of the gun barrel is capable of accommodating projectiles of only a single dimension. This necessitates stock piling a large number of assorted sized fittings in order to provide the capability of capturing and recoverying projectiles of various sizes. More importantly, the acquisition of the fitting produces substantial reverse acceleration forces on the projectile.
It is therefore an object of this invention to overcome the above noted drawbacks in the prior art techniques and devices.
It is an object of this invention to provide a projectile soft recovery apparatus suitable for use in the field and in the laboratory.
It is another object of this invention to provide a soft recovery system which may be adapted to insure the safety of personnel operating a weapon which may also be adapted to laboratory testing purposes.
It is another object of the invention to provide a soft recovery system which is adapted to use with a variety of standard projectiles.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a soft recovery system for projectiles wherein a single element of apparatus may be used to recover projectiles of varying dimensions.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a soft recovery system which is inexpensive, requiring no complex equipment or devices, and requiring no power input for the operation of the system.